Metzora – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam. And together with Brad TV, we are doing the Torah portions of the year, week by week following the reading of the same portion, that all of the synagogues around the world read. This week, the portion we are doing with is called Metzora, which means “leprous,” with an illness of leprosy, and it’s dealing now with what happens when a person thinks that he, or other people, decree, that he’s pure.

He has to go to the priest and he has to go through a series of procedures to make sure that he is over his leprosy. Now, remember that we talked last week about Naaman, the chief of staff of the Assyrian army that fought against Israel who captured a young girl and brought her as a slave to help his wife with her housework or chores at home. And he got leprosy. And this young girl told his wife that there is a man in Israel, Elijah, the prophet that could help him.

So he comes to Israel with a letter, from the king of Assyria to the king of Israel. And Elijah tells him to be immersed seven times in the Jordan River. And, he thinks that’s ridiculous. And his servants, his own servants convince him as they get close to the Jordan River. Well, what do you have to lose, man? Do it, see what happens? He does it, he gets purified and he returns to Elijah the prophet to tell him thank you.

The story is very interesting, but now the next portion is actually called Metzora, leprous, leprous, and it starts with the following word from Chapter 14 verse one of the book of Leviticus.:

Now we remember from Luke Chapter 17 that Yeshua is going to Jerusalem through Samaria up and down the mountains, the hard way to go, but the more much beautiful way to go, with a lot of water, fresh water in the spring time, flowers, wild flowers beautiful mountains are painted with red and purple and lavender and yellow with wildflowers.

So Yeshua chooses to go, probably in spring time, definitely not winter or summer to Jerusalem through Samaria. There He meets 10 lepers and He heals them, and He sends them to the priest to be purified. And our portion today that starts in chapter 14 verse 1 and ends in chapter 15 verse 33 is actually dealing with the purification process. And in the purification process, there are stages.

The first stage is that the lepers stay in some kind of encampment that is outside the camp. We see that in verse 3 and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall examine him, the leprous person. And indeed if the leprosy is healed in the leper, then the priests shall command to take him, the one who is to be cleansed, and two living clean birds, cedar woods, scarlet and hyssop. Hyssop, by the way is oregano, what we call oregano, but it’s wild oregano. it grows in the hills of Judea and Galilee and Samaria.

Then the priest shall command one of the birds to be killed in an earthen vessel under running water. Procedures, sacrifice of two birds. We talked about this last week that Joseph and Mary when they came to dedicate baby Jesus in the temple in Chapter 2 of the gospel of Luke they brought a sacrifice of two turtle doves or two pigeons. And that’s a sacrifice that the middle class, lower middle class brings, not poor, but not rich either.

So they bring that kind of sacrifice to the temple in Jerusalem, in the dedication of baby Jesus. Here, the two birds are brought and the texts deals in detail of what to do with the birds. To pluck their feathers and to do this, to cut them in half and with the cedar wood and the the different scarlet and hyssop, that they need in order to do the procedure. And then, what happens?

After the sacrifice of the pigeons, and then the sacrifices of the sheep, and all this, the priest sprinkles, the person who is healed from leprosy and they take the clothes off and they wash the clothes and they shave all of the hair from his body, from all of his body, the hair, and he gets purified outside the camp for seven days. And then following the seven days, after this, his head and his beard and, all the hair from his body is shaved.

On the eight day, they sacrifice two sheep without blemish, and offer a handful of milled wheat or wheat flour, semolina, whatever it is, however it is translated to English. And then the purified guy goes through the process of purification. And a sin offering is offered up for him, and then the following interesting things happen. Chapter 14 of Leviticus from verse 15. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering of the sheep. And the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is being cleaned and on his right thumb and on the toe of his right foot.

The blood of the sacrifice is put on his ear, on his thumb, and on his right foot. And the priest will take some of the oil. We’re talking about olive oil, and pour it into the palm of his left hand, here. And then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil from his left hand and sprinkle some of the oil with the finger seven times before the Lord.

Now remember that when Elijah told Naaman, in Chapter 5 that he needs to, of Second Kings Chapter 5 of Second Kings, he needs to go to the Jordan River and be baptized seven times. Here, we have again seven times of dipping. The priest dips from the hand of the guy with the leprosy, in the oil, and sprinkles seven times before the Lord, and sprinkles the rest of the oil in his hand.

The priest shall put some of it on the tip of his right ear, and right thumb, and on the right toe his foot. Now, first they anointed his right ear, his right thumb, and his right toe with the blood of the sacrifice. Now they’re anointing the same parts of the body. The ear, the thumb and the toe, with the oil. The leftover oil, they put on the head of the guy. And this is a very interesting procedure folks. And the big question is why are they doing this kind of anointing? The same kind of anointing by the way happens in Chapter 8 of Leviticus in the dedication of the sons of Aaron as priests.

So in any kind of oil anointing, or blood anointing in the Torah, this is what happens. They don’t just take a little bit of oil and make a cross shape on the forehead of the person like evangelicals do, generally speaking, around the world. No, they anoint parts of the body, the ear, the thumb and the toe on the right hand. Why?

What’s the big deal about anointing with the blood and with the oil? Here is the big deal. When you dedicate to the Lord. The purpose of that dedication is for you to hear from the Lord, to do the work of the Lord, and to walk in the path of the Lord. And in order to do this, in the purity, and with the sincerity, and with the clear purpose of your dedication, you are anointed by the priest with blood on the ear, on the thumb and on the toe. And that is the value of the sacrifice. And second, the Holy Spirit is symbolized with the oil, pure oil, olive oil and you are anointed again in the right ear, the right thumb and the right toe. again, so that you are not only going to be doing the sacrificial life and function for the Lord, symbolized by the blood of the lamb that is sacrificed for your purity but you are going to also need the spirit of God symbolized by the oil on your ear, on your thumb, and on your foot.

So that you hear from the Lord, do the work of the Lord with your hands and walk in the ways of the Lord with your feet. This teaching here, of the way that the priests were anointed in Chapter 8. And the way that a person who was with leprosy is finally cured and dedicated and purified to do the work of the Lord is of great importance. Remember that Yeshua after He healed the 10 lepers in Luke Chapter 17, what did He do? He told them, go to the priest, to confirm your purification, to confirm the miracle, to confirm the process of being purified, because it’s not enough to be healed.

You have to have proof of your healing and the proof of your healing will come from the priest going through this ceremony. And rededicating you, to hear from God, to do the work of God and to walk in the path of God. I think that this is a very, very important lesson for all of us, because, you know, I’ve been a believer now for more than 60 years, in fact, 62 years, and I’ve started congregations in other countries and in Israel and I have dedicated young people and raised them into the ministry. In fact, right now in Netivyah, in Jerusalem, several of the workers here are born and raised in this ministry. And I’m very proud of them.

They’re better than I am in so many different areas and dear brothers and sister, the truth is that we are in the next generation of leadership. And when they were anointed into the ministry we used exactly this text to anoint them. We didn’t have a sacrifice of blood. We didn’t kill a sheep. We didn’t have an altar, but we had oil and we anointed them with oil on the right ear, on the right thumb and on the right toe. So that they will be hearing from the Lord, doing the work of the Lord, and walking the path of the Lord.

And that makes a big impact, both on the crowd on the congregation itself and on the person who is being anointed. The next thing that we have in this portion is, again a milestone of importance, and a milestone of faith that we need to understand from the Lord. I’m going to read now from Chapter 14 of Leviticus from verse 21. No, I’m gonna start from verse 20, Okay?

The guy who was leprous now in the final act there is a special offering for the man and the atonement of his sins and now he’s clean. Sin and illness are connected in the Bible in several ways. The most famous one is from the letter of James. And we, he said, you will, you, the elders, will pray for the person and he will heal and his sins will be forgiven. And so this is the normal procedure.

However, if the person is poor in verse 21 and cannot afford a lamb for his atonement then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering, and a wave offering to make atonement for him one tenth of ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and a log of oil, instead of having two lambs, one lamb and two turtle doves or two young pigeons, such as is able to afford, one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.

All these are very interesting. We find out that the Lord looks at us on the bell curve. If we’re too poor to do something that He prescribes He says, okay, I’ll give you a 50% discount. I think that this is amazing folks that Torah reflects the will of God and says, if you cannot afford it, I’ll give you a discount, 50%. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean. Instead of two sheep, one sheep, and a turtle dove, a bird, a small bird, a pigeon, one is as a sin offering, and the other one is a burnt offering to the Lord.

This relativity of how God looks at us is in the New Testament as well, dear brothers, and sisters. We’ve got the story of the Pharisee who gave a thousand dinar and a widow who gave two pennies. And I’ve mentioned that before already because it’s such an important principle. It’s not how much you give; it’s how much you love the Lord. And you give the most that you can. That widow gave two pennies, but it was all she had.

Well, the rich man gave from his surplus, a thousand dinar. And that’s how the Lord looks at us. When we do our best, it’s the most. This is the very important principle that I want you brothers and sisters to take into heart. When you do your best, it’s the most; it has nothing to do with the monetary value of what you give. It has to do with how much of your heart is in it. And if your heart is not in it, you haven’t got a lot of mileage with the Lord. Your relationship with God has to do with how much of yourself in give. Because God looks at your heart and into your kidneys. The two elements that express emotion and thinking and rational, rationale. That’s what God looks at, my dear brothers and sisters.

And in this text here, I’m repeating the main thing that I want you to remember that if you are dedicating yourself to the service of the Lord, to preach, to be an evangelist, to be a pastor to be an elder, to be a deacon, to be anything in the service of God, remember what the anointing is, for your ear, to hear the Lord, for your hand, to do the work of the Lord, and for your feet, to walk in the path of the Lord. And may God bless all of you dear brothers and sisters. Keep reading the Torah and the prophets and the New Testament. God bless and be with all of you. Amen.